What have pop-up restaurants got in common with cupcakes and gastropubs? They are victims of their own success. They are not all as the first ones were. They have been washed out by the rushing waters of the mainstream, and are beginning to moulder. They are likely to cause fatigue.

The phenomenon was interesting back in, ooh, 2009-ish, and since then its power has been harnessed by all and sundry, from Nando's to Thomas Keller's little venture which has just started. For the most part it has become nakedly commercial, bland, predictable and soulless. Has the pop-up bubble popped?

This summer was full of variations on the theme in picturesque locations and still they roll on. There are still many pop-ups whose adherence to the nominal rules of the game (appear not only temporarily but briefly in a space not usually used for dining, maintain a spirit of culinary rebellion if not necessarily a valid food hygiene certificate, offer thrills a conventional restaurant can't) align them with the excitement of the originals. But just as supermarket cupcakes lack the tender crumb of the Magnolia Bakery's red velvet, and not all food pubs are equal in the pork belly and real ale departments, there is a gulf between proper and improper pop-ups that is as deep and empty as a bad PR's bag of ideas.

So how might the innocent diner tell the top rank of pop-ups from the impudent imposters? My inner stickler suggests a ticklist. Sharpen your asparagus spear and make a note of the answers to the following enquiries (and feel free to supply your own criteria below).

How much is it?

Restaurants can get away with being reassuringly expensive, but that's not how pop-ups tend to roll. Jay Rayner has registered his disapproval of Thomas Keller's 10-day French Laundry pop-up at Harrods which opened on Saturday and costs £250 a head. Last night Sabrina Ghayour's response, a charitable "French Laundrette" dinner event costing a minimum of £2.50, was closer to the spirit, though she called it a supper club and did it in a restaurant (see "Where is it?" below), which demonstrates just how muddy these waters can be.

The London Restaurant Festival's London Eye pop-up which from 4 October will see chefs including Angela Hartnett and Jason Atherton cook for podfuls of people for between £12,500 and £15,000 is rather more extravagant (and more like an outside catering job) than many others.

These high priced events are not for food or restaurant lovers - I'd rather save up and go to the French Laundry proper than throw £250 at a pop-up event in London which is likely to be full of corporate types and sadly lacking in atmosphere - either of his restaurant in the Napa Valley or the underground atmosphere we associate with pop-ups.

How long it is there for?

One night, a few days or a couple of weeks is different to a short lease of six months or a year. I am fond both of Drink Tea Eat Cake, a six-month spin-off of Manchester's Teacup café which serves excellent caramel-filled chocolate witches' hats, and Roganic, Simon Rogan's celebrated two-year-long toe-in-the-London-water which does clever things with little-known greenery in a normal restaurant set up. I would not count either of them as a proper pop-up. Their appropriation of the term is merely a helpful indication that they won't be around for ever.

Where is it?

If you're a chef running a pop-up restaurant in a venue that's usually a restaurant, that's not much of a challenge. And outside catering (I think that's probably you, chefs on the London Eye) is outside catering. Disused buildings, village halls and scout huts give better quirk and, by extension, a more authentic pop-up.

What are they selling?

It's never a chore to eat great food, especially if it's cooked by a big-name chef whose restaurant is usually tricky to access. If it's washed down with a sponsor's liquor (or, worse, washing-up liquid), though, it might be a bit more difficult to swallow. If you're a PR with a client even loosely related to the food and drink industry, the marketing "activity" least likely to secure enthusiastic coverage is now – you guessed it – the pop-up.

In an attempt not to add grist to a particularly tiresome mill, I will mention only briefly Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets, frozen food, Cloudy Bay wine and Kirin beer. Sadly, a crowded market makes it all the more difficult to see the good ones.

Been here before?

Why go to a proper branch of a well-established restaurant such as Nando's, Pizza Express or even Canteen when you could you to a temporary, slightly confused version of the same place, possibly at a festival or with a shorter menu and dazed staff? Because head office thought you might like to experience a safe version of a recent and edgily uninsured dining phenomenon and at the same time refresh your opinion of their brand!

Is it something else?

Is it a restored classic recreation vehicle serving food without providing chairs? Is it a boutique-turned-nocturnal restaurant at which invited amateur cooks work with a support team to produce an acceptable dinner for invited guests? Is it regular dinners at a stylish non-residential, non-restaurant venue? Is it a professional chef serving his or her food in someone else's restaurant? Is it a paid-for dinner in someone's house? Is it food cooked in a tent and served to the sounds of distant guitars? Then it could be a private dining club, street food, guest chef event, supper club, festival catering or subversive new (ha!) way of marketing mustard.

Your guess – and I'd love to hear it - is as good as mine. I'm popping upstairs for a lie down.